A Kind of Illumination
by solochan2014
Summary: Years too late, a father and a son reconcile. Set late DH. Inspired by JK's Pottermore Insight into Remus Lupin.


Remus considered the length of time he had stared at the house. He had been thirty the last time he had visited and he wasn't sure visiting today was going to cause memories to stir that he didn't want to resurface.

On the other hand, Dora had told him that if he didn't at least try, she would just turn up at the house with Teddy in tow and see how that would go instead.

So the werewolf took a breath, wiped his face with a hand, which he hadn't realised had been perspiring until then and stepped towards the front door of the cottage. He knocked twice and waited shifting on the spot, admiring the flowers that had been tended to so patiently on the window boxes around the entrance to the cottage.

It didn't take long for a wiry old man to peak from the door, he was in his sixties, his brown hair flecked with grey much like Remus's and his height that had once stretched to a head taller than Remus rather now met the werewolf eye to eye as he hunched in his growing age.

The older man was first to react to this meeting, pulling the front door wide he almost shouted in surprised

"Why I never!" he announced. Before Remus could say anything his father embraced him tightly; the werewolf was stunned but he managed to claw his arms free and give him a hug back. He smelt just as he always had, pipe tobacco and tea and he savoured that moment until the hug finally broke.

"It's good to see you," Remus intoned carefully as though afraid to say things he would regret but his father dragged him inside before he could so much as explain his shock visit.

Lyall Lupin busied himself around his little home, it wasn't in the best condition but it was clearly loved and lived in, a home for one, surrounded by books and photo frames. Whilst Remus recalled the faces in photographs Lyall had a sudden thought his face suddenly pale,"I'm not in danger am I?"

Remus blinked at the question, then remembered the last time there was a war Remus had told him out right visits were not done, he had told him that he couldn't visit until the war was over, and even then he didn't out of what he believed was a sense of duty to let his father live in peace. He shook his head determinedly.

"No, you're not in danger..." he told his father gently, who had forced him onto a stool.

Unfortunately, this new answer led Lyall to look to his son with a new suspicion, his happiness at the surprise arrival suddenly dulled as his charms came into effect biscuits settling onto the table whilst beside them a teapot gently manoeuvring to land without spilling it's contents.

"Then why are you here?" he asked and Remus shifted his weight whilst he sat on the stool, boundless feelings of guilt seized him and he swallowed before speaking.

"You were right, what you said last time we talked-"

Lyall seemed to remember this because he too shared the same guilty look, he waved a hand and the tea pot started to pour into two separate cups "We were unhappy and had both said things we regretted Remus let's not-"

"But you were right..." Remus exhaled and hadn't realised until that moment he had been completely holding his breathe. "You were right about me, I am self destructive...and...thankfully...thanks to my wife..I've been able to work on it."

Lyall's face went from utter confusion to complete happiness in the space of a couple of seconds, his wrinkles forcing his whole face to transform into a much younger man. "Your wife?" he repeated.

"My wife and my son...your grandson Teddy."

Remus knew his father would be pleased for him, he knew that the old man had worried for so long about him, but as a trail of tears ran down his father's face he knew it was more than that.

"Is he...?" He tried to gurgle a question that Remus had already been expecting.

"No, no he's not," came Remus's resounding answer.

Lyall sniffed and used his cotton jumper to wipe his eyes, Remus lent forward and put a hand on his free arm and said nothing, letting his father gather this information and then pulled two photographs out of his jacket pocket. One was of Teddy alone, his hair blue, the other was of the three of them, taken by Kingsley who had visited them when they arrived back home. Teddy's hair was still blue and both Remus and Tonks were staring admiringly at him.

Lyall held them with weathered hands, absorbing each photograph. He held onto the latter with a new sense of firmness.

"I only ever wanted you're happiness, your mother and I-"  
"I know" Remus said softly, and his father stared up at him.  
"She would have been so..."

Lyall never finished, and Remus tightened his grip on his arm and they said nothing. For a few more minutes after their silence they talked animatedly, if only very briefly how he and Tonks were married and how they met. Remus avoided too many details to worry the old man, about their time at war, but he shared enough to know it was unfortunately the war how they met. Before he realised the time he'd planned had already been spent, and he had promised to be home for when Andromeda came to visit.

"Keep the photograph." Remus said, he tucked the one of Teddy away back into his jacket for safe keeping. "I'm sure they'll be plenty more." Lyall smiled, putting the photograph by his tea-cup, their tea still steaming beside them, but Lyall knew that these visits were short and sweet.

"I'll bring the family next time" Remus told him with a chuckle and Lyall stood to meet him at the door.

"You'll tell your wife I can't wait to meet her? and Teddy of course...how old is he?"

"A month old tomorrow can you believe! He looks bigger now than he does in the photograph," Remus said with a look on his face that seemed to transform him completely. Lyall patted his son on the back and Remus started to leave the house; tucking up his jacket from the drizzle outside with a spring in his step that his father hadn't seen since the day he left for Hogwarts.

"We'll do this more often from now on," Remus called back to his father, and Lyall smiled fondly waving back. The older man's eyes seemed to widen the further as Remus disappeared from view. The further he went the more desperately he wished he could have stayed longer and finally his son was completely out of sight.


End file.
